Oct 7, 2012 - Samarkand

Après une journée passée à Tashkent, il nous faut bien 2 jours pour visiter Samarkand. C'est une des villes les plus connues de la route de la Soie, et sur place on comprend pourquoi: la ville est parsemée de nombreux monuments (mausolée, mosquée, madresa = école musulmane, caravan serail = hotel, etc.), datant pour la plupart de l'époque de Timur (aussi appelé Tamerlan) au 15e siecle. Tout est magnifique! On est impressionnés par les couleurs, le détail du travail, et la multitude de monuments, il y en a partout! La place la plus connue...

Sep 12, 2012 - Samarkand

Wtorek, 11 wrzesnia - Samarkand Po sniadaniu przeprowadzam sie do Badohir Guesthouse. Moze warunki troche gorsze ale blizej centrum, taniej no i co wazne wiele tu turystow z którymi można wymienic doswiadczenia. Zaraz potem rozpoczynam zwiedzanie Samarkandy. Najpierw Registon. Wstep do na plac (z 3 madresaami) to 13 600 UZ Som. Widzialem ze tubylcy placa tylko 600 UZ Som. Przez wiele godzin chodze po wszystkich 3 madressach podziwiajac ich architekture. Pierwsza z nich, Ulugbek Madressa byla zbudowana na samym poczatku 1400. To musiala na...

Sep 10, 2012 - Buchara - Samarkand

Niedziela, 9 wrzesnia - Buchara Dzis kontynuje moje zwiedzanie Buchary. Zwiedzam madressy tego miasta. W wiekszosci SA one zamienione na miejsca sprzedazy pamiatek i dywanow choc w jednej znalazlem male muzeum pokazujace jak kiedys zyli studenci madrassy. Przede wszystkim chodze po roznych zakamarkach miasta robiac wiele zdjec. Pozniej kieruje sie do poludniowej czesci starego miasta ktore swego czasu bylo dzielnica zydowska. Buchara do ostatniego spisu w 1991 roku w 15% byla zamieszkiwana przez Zydow. Odnajduje (z trudem) ponad 200 letnia...

Jul 5, 2012 - Samarkand is actually quite nice

I actually really like Samarkand, the major sites are connected with leafy tree lined pedestrian boulevards. Modern yes, pleasant yes and actually is a welcome relief from the dusty cities of Khiva and Bukhara. Our first stop today was to Ulegbek's observatory. Remember his grandfather was Tamerlane who was a warrior and despite his favorite grandson not being a warrior he could see the benefits of science that Ulegbek was interested in. He created a large sextant to map the stars. All that remains is the large curved track that was...

Jul 4, 2012 - Leafy, sunny Samarkand

Today due to various tour emergencies, we had no city tour. That comes tomorrow, but I still went out and visited a few of the major sites from the outside. The first stop is the Registan, a complex of 3 medressas facing each other. A medressa is an Islamic school, where many things like mathematics and science was taught. The tiling on these medressas is still in tact the oldest dating back to 1420. I wandered onto visit the Gur-e Amir mausoleum, again in great condition ratings back to the early 1400's. The central Asian conqueror...

May 16, 2011 - Trip nach Uzbekistan - Ben en Ouzbekistan

Auf meiner zweiten Geschäftsreise nach Uzbekistan geht es diesmal auch nach Samarkand. Neben den geschäftlichen Sachen haben wir am Abend auch noch Zeit, uns die Denkmäler und Mausoleen anzuschauen - wunderschön! Ich bin wirklich beeindruckt und muss hier auf jeden Fall nochmal privat herkommen. --------- Ben part pour la 2ème fois en Ouzbekistan pour le boulot. Cette fois il en profite pour visiter Samarkand, une des perles culturelles de l'Asie centrale. Après une journée de travail, Ben se rend sur le site regroupant les mausolées et...

May 13, 2011 - Samarkand

Wifi again - bliss! After leaving Bukhara we spent a night in a yurt camp somewhere in the Kyzylkum Desert. This is a tourist initiative, around a dozen yurts sleeping about 6 each with a central dining tent and a camp fire. Soon after getting there half a dozen of us got on camels for a short ride through the desert - there are lots of tortoises here, and we saw a hare/rabbit and lizards. Back at camp we had dinner and then gathered round the camp fire for the entertainment - a Kazak singer singing local songs. He had a CD too! After that...

Apr 11, 2010 - Samarcande

Le temps est maussade aujourd'hui. Je crains qu'il ne pleuve, d'autant plus que la meteo annonce une journee de pluie. Tant qu'il ne pleut pas, Vincent et moi allons visiter le Registan, ou nous rencontrons Chirali, un Ouzbek etudiant le francais a l'Institut francais de Samarcande. Il souhaite pratiquer son francais avec Vincent et nous demande s'il peut nous accompagner quelques heures. C'est aussi l'occasion pour nous d'en savoir plus sur la culture ouzbeke et nous acceptons. Le Registan a ete magnifiquement restaure ces dernieres...

Apr 10, 2010 - Lac Aydar Kul - Navoi - Samarcande

Ce matin, nous nous sommes leves a 8h00 pour prendre un petit dejeuner rapide compose de crepes francaises avant de partir a destination de Samarcande. Misha, notre chauffeur a l'aller, ne nous raccompagne pas a Navoi. Il y a d'autres touristes qui doivent arriver aujourd'hui. Il nous confie a un autre chauffeur qui nous depose a Nurata et paie un taxi collectif pour nous reconduire a Navoi. A Navoi, Vincent et moi n'hesitons pas a prendre le premier car a destination de Samarcande. Les tarifs sont interessants et nous permettent d'avoir...

Sep 17, 2009 - Sarmakand

OK I'm nearly up-to-date - we are currently in Samarkand! Got here at about 4pm and after settling into the FURKAT B&B which is in a side alley with a big iron door that leads to a cool courtyard with trees and Turkish style bed/seats my room isn't finished so nothing on the floor or walls but the bathroom is the best in the place with a massage shower so don't care about the floor - mind you the beds are still old but reasonable. Found the Batman Internet Cafe and as you can see have spent some time here over the past couple of days...

Oct 18, 2008 - Bukhara to Samarkand

October 18, Saturday (Bukhara to Samarkand) We began the 5 hour drive from Bukhara to Samarkand at 9 AM sharp. The landscape was generally desert scrub that looks much like it did ten centuries ago when camel caravans plodded along the road now paved with heaving asphalt. There were occasional stretches of irrigated cotton fields that were ready for harvest. Crews of twenty or thirty were engaged in picking the plants and stuffing the white tufts into worn bags. Because of the labor intensive nature of the cotton harvest, I gather that...

Aug 31, 2008 - Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Pic #3813-3838 3840-46 Leaving for the border...the lady of our homestay, Nematov Niyozkul, tho she speaks no English understands alot and was able to exchg. 67 someni for 25200 sum (currencies of Tajik & Uzbeck) which we found out later was very fair. She also arranged for our taxi to the border and altho we asked 2-3 times and reiterated that it would cost 20 someni for all 3 of us(since we exchg all the rest of our $$) when we reached the border the driver insisted it was 35($10 US instead of $6). Having no more and also feeling a bit...